At trial, Bergrin seeks to discredit the confessed killer of an FBI informant

Confronting a key government witness for a second day, attorney Paul W. Bergrin on Tuesday attempted to discredit a confessed assassin who implicated him in the 2004 slaying of an FBI informant.

Bergrin grilled Anthony Young for nearly five hours, zeroing in on purported discrepancies in the statements the former heroin and cocaine dealer gave to the FBI and in his testimony at the 2007 trial of a drug-ring associate, William Baskerville, and at Bergrin’s two trials.

Bergrin, 57, of Nutley, is defending himself in federal court in Newark against murder, attempted murder and multiple racketeering counts that include allegations of cocaine trafficking, prostitution and witness tampering. His first trial on two murder counts related to the informant’s slaying ended in a hung jury in 2011.

Pointing to changes in Young’s version of the facts, Bergrin insinuated that Young’s memory has been adjusted by his federal handlers in pre-trial preparation sessions designed to clean up problems with his prior testimony.

Young strenuously denied being coached to alter his testimony, telling Bergrin at one point: “Nobody ever told me to do nothing. They were asking me questions.”

Young, 38, is serving 30 years in prison for gunning down the informant, Kemo Deshawn McCray, on a Newark street. He fought back on the witness stand, accusing Bergrin of misrepresenting details of his prior testimony by cherry-picking remarks and taking them out of context to make it seem that there were inconsistencies when there were none.

Several times during the cross-examination, U.S. District Judge Dennis M. Cavanaugh cautioned Bergrin about his attempts to impeach the witness with statements that weren’t inconsistent and for returning again and again to the same points instead of moving on.

Bergrin grilled Young about his accounts of the murder plot, the shooting of McCray, and Young’s movements before and after the shooting contending he gave several versions and left out certain details even though they were “a lot fresher in your mind” in 2007.

Young explained that he only answered the questions posed to him, but Bergrin countered that the witness had been asked to give a sequence of everything he did.

Young admitted he initially lied to FBI agents and prosecutors, and framed another ring member as the shooter because he feared for his life and wanted to get him off the streets. He insisted that he has told the truth since he decided to come clean in 2006 and cooperate with authorities. At the same time, Young acknowledged that at times he has made mistakes in his prior testimony.

Bergrin elicited testimony that Young had known McCray both in jail and from the “hood,” yet he showed no emotion as he recounted the murder.

“Do I regret what I did? Yes,” Young replied. “But he’s a criminal just like I am.”

Young testified that Bergrin advised members of a drug gang to get rid of McCray to prevent him from testifying against Baskerville, who had retained Bergrin following his arrest in November 2003 for selling crack cocaine to McCray.

Although he said Bergrin told the gang, “no Kemo, no case,” Young acknowledged that he never actually heard Bergrin say “kill Kemo” or that he wanted McCray dead.